PlayCity receives applications from all 3 operators in lottery licensing tender
All three current operators – M.S.L. LLC, Ukrainian National Lottery (UNL), and PJSC Patriot– have submitted applications to participate in the lottery operator licensing competition announced in early December by the State Agency for Gambling and Lottery Regulation of Ukraine (PlayCity).
As PlayCity’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday, the application deadline expired on December 29.
PlayCity head Hennadiy Novikov previously told Interfax-Ukraine that this licensing competition is unlikely to result in the entry of new operators due to legislative restrictions, but that the situation should be changed in the future.
"Therefore, licenses will be issued not for 10 years, but for the duration of martial law plus one year, though not exceeding three years. This gives the Ministry of Digital Transformation and parliament time to revise lottery market regulation, propose new rules, and relicense the market under an updated approach with the possibility of attracting international companies," Novikov said.
According to him, the importance of the current tender lies in the fact that for more than 10 years operators have effectively been operating without license fees, as the licenses previously issued by the Ministry of Finance expired in 2013–2014.
Under the competition requirements, an applicant must have active separate subdivisions in every Ukrainian city with a population of more than 500,000; lottery distribution points in every locality with a population of more than 5,000, totaling no fewer than 5,000 points of sale; a domain name in the .UA domain zone; an electronic betting acceptance system; and at least 5,000 operational electronic betting terminals owned by the applicant. In addition, applicants must have a cumulative experience of at least three years in organizing and conducting state lotteries.
As reported, since February 2025, state policy in the gambling sector has been shaped and coordinated by the Ministry of Digital Transformation. On March 21, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to establish a new central executive body, the PlayCity agency, which officially reports to the Ministry of Digital Transformation and, as of April 1, replaced the previous regulator, the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries.
